Chug-along-chica!

I ran one mile with Holly in the dark this morning.  It was GUSTY!  The kind of wind that blows you all over the road!  The kind that reminds me of the Wizard of OZ!  But despite that, Holly set a record for her fastest mile by almost a minute, so I am super proud of her.

Then I ran my son to school, followed immediately by a tempo mile with the double jogging stroller.  I counted it as a tempo mile because I had this crazy notion to break my record for the fastest mile with the double stroller.  I'll have to check, but I think I did it.  My time was 9:57, and I was breathing HARD.  (I just checked, and my previous record with the stroller had been 10:50.  Yea!)  It was still kind of windy, and I had to finish uphill and into the wind.  Felt like I was sprinting--but only going 9:30 pace at the end.

My boys were sick of being in the stroller, so they sat on the curb and watched me finish the distance by doing laps in the cul de sac about 1,000 times.  One lap is .04 of a mile.  I did half a mile that way--at 8:45 pace mostly.  I hadn't intended to do it that fast, but it just seemed so easy after running with that honkin' stroller!

1.3 miles later picking up my son from school.

2.85 With Christine with splits of 10:08, 9:42, and 9:27 pace for the .85.  Probably a little faster than I would have liked this morning.  I should have asked her to hold up a little, but I was chicken, and she didn't respond to my subtle hint of hanging about 2 feet behind her.  : )  I'm supposed to be grounded to 9:45 pace and above on my slow runs until I can do a 24:24 for a 5K, or something like that.

1.28 With the double jogging stroller to take my little guy to school.  Can I take just a minute to say how glad I am that I started running him to school?  He is doing so well!  Usually by this time of year I have to put him on mild steroids (Flovent 44) every day to keep his asthma stuff under control.  But he is doing fine--no croup, no respiratory infection, no diff. breathing.  This is amazing for the end of October!  And his other health issue (which has been a problem forever) is getting much better too.  Let's just say he is a pretty regular little boy now!  I've gone to all kinds of specialists with him for various stuff, but none of them ever suggested running with him every day, yet that has been the most helpful of anything we've tried so far--including prescription medication.  And it takes the same amount of time as driving there; and we always talk a lot and review spelling and math facts--so he is doing really well at school.  OK, I'll stop now.  I'm just excited.

About 1.15 later today to pick up little guy from school.

Vote on names for the Canyonlands Half on the discussion board, everyone!

I had a really scary dream last night about running in the dark, so this morning when my running buddy slept in I took it as a sign and went back to bed.  I can't deny--it felt really good! 

2.83 with the double jogging stroller.  It was really hard today (it's always hard to me, but still!)  I figured out why at the end of my run, when the front tire started making a weird grating sound.  It was so flat that the rim was rolling on the ground--Ug!

2.17 Tonight all by my lonesome self. 

Had some pain in my femur today--or maybe it was my quads.  It caused a little bit of a limp for about 3 quarters of a mile.  Felt better as I went along.  (That means it can't possibly be a stress fracture, right?) I took it extremely slow all day.

2 Whole days off from running, waiting for my quads to return to normal.  Holy weirdness, Batman!   It seemed like a lot longer.  I guess that I really need to admit how important running has become in my life, and how grateful I am to be able to do it.

So I took a nice little jog with each of my little boys one at a time--totaling a whopping 1.5 miles (ave. pace 15:00).  It felt really good, so tonight I will do another 1.5 at around 10:30 pace or something like that. 

Later: I procrastinated my 2nd run until rather late at night.  I got all dressed and everything, went out, ran 3 steps, and froze in place.  There were some really scary looking people staring right at me, and I allowed myself to be intimidated.  My bad for putting the run off until it is so late that even (possibly) harmless teenagers take on the ominous look of escaped convicts.